BEING AN EXAMPLE of the old switcheroo, this entry into the Laurel & Hardy series of 2 reelers puts the Boys into the role of Cops; rather than their being at odds with the Law. The resulting mayhem is pleasant and more than mildly amusing; even if it is decidedly on the predictable side.TO START WITH, the night scene filming is really impressive and does give us the feel of what has long been called "the Dog Watch" in Big City police department circles. The street scenes are authentic in appearance and make for a high classed, impressive and convincing setting. The sets, including the sight of a residential burglary call, do seem to be familiar. No doubt they were the very same shoot sights that were used in so many of Mr. Hal Roach's productions; dating back to the Silents.THE SITUATIONS THAT make up the scenario (such as it is) are mainly unrelated; held together only by their being the assignments of the rookie L & H cop team. Of course, this may be an unintentional concession to reality; for a real tour of duty day would be made up of many different assignments, which would be seldom related.THE CAST OF this one is quite sparse, with only three other players in the early goings on. The burglary suspect and the radio dispatcher's voice are the most prominently featured, other than the store burglar. The largest number of on screen actors appear at the end of the story in the police station. Though unbilled, the actors that filled out the cast are names familiar to the Hal Roach comedies, such as: James C. Morton, Tiny Sanford, Harry Bernard, Billy Bletcher (dispatcher's voice) and Charlie Hall.THE ENDING IS one that we would have to stretch to view as being truly a funny way to leave us laughing. Rather, it could be said to be an example of the surreal on the screen.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Officers Stan and Ollie pull over to open up their police telephone and take out their lunch of sandwiches and milk bottles, and Stan manages to snap the phone cord. Just after tucking in, they get a radio report that some men (Bob Kortman and Charlie Hall) are trying to steal their spare tyre, so Stan gets out and chases these men away and threatening arrest next time he sees them. They mock him, so he throws a brick through their brick, and they it back through the back window of their car, hitting Ollie on the back of the head and cracking on open his milk bottle to squirt him in the face. Then the police radio reports a man trying to break into 24 Walnut Avenue, but they quickly forget this address when the car stalls, and with their phone cord broken Stan goes into the near jewellery store. He fails to notice the man inside trying to crack open a safe is a crook (Frank Terry) as he makes he phone call to get the address again, and when Ollie comes in the crook gets his gun out. The crook gets a ticket to appear in court at his convenience, and after making the phone call again with Stan losing half the address, the crook trying to steal their car is told to appear in court the next day, no excuses. So the boys get to the address reported, and they see a man (Frank Brownlee) banging on the windows and going down into the basement, while they follow him, the man has a word with his Butler (Al Corporal), as he is the owner of the house. The boys find he has locked the door to the basement, so after Ollie has a little tumble going up the wrong set of steps, they go outside to the front door. Stan suggests if they want to get through it they should step back ten paces, so as Ollie steps back he ends up in the near pond on step nine, and when he gets out soaked, he also gets squirted by his water filled gun. While Ollie and Stan grab and lift the near heavy bench, the house owner is getting dressed to investigate the noises outside, and the boys mess up swinging the bench into the door when Stan makes Ollie fall in the pond again, and Stan gets splashed too. After lifting up the bench which Ollie was trapped under in the pond, and taking a pond weed and fish out of their clothes, Stan and he have a quandary about which direction to swing and move the bench. After swapping ends of the bench, they count three and swing the bench forward, crashing through the door and going up a few stairs before the floor gives way, and they go into the basement landing in a barrel of sauerkraut. The house owner comes down with a long barrelled shot gun, and he also goes through the hole in the staircase landing in a wardrobe, and it is only when he is knocked on the head by a bottle that he is quiet. So Stan and Ollie take what they think is the criminal to headquarters, but everyone is shocked to see it is Police Chief Ramsbottom, and he has no hesitation to shoot the boys as they walk out, but is good enough to call the coroner. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Good!

Stan and Ollie usually were at great odds with the defenders of law and order. In their early feature film, PARDON US, they end up in prison when Stan sells their first batch of prohibition booze to a police officer. In THE HOOSEGOW they are on a chain gang, and manage to make a visit by the state governor (Jimmy Finlayson) a total disaster for their warden (Tiny Stanford). In SCRAM they run afoul of a no-nonsenses judge as vagrants, and end up getting drunk in his home, wearing his pajamas and clothes, while apparently playing house with his wife. There are plenty of other examples - even the scene in BABES IN TOYLAND (a fantasy mind you) where the boys are found guilty of trying to burglarize Barnaby's (Henry Kleinbach's) home, and are dunked as a result.Therefore, THE MIDNIGHT PATROL is quite unique in that Stan and Ollie are now members of the town police force. And they are just as incompetent here as as when they sold that hooch in PARDON US. Driving around in their patrol car, they manage to get their tires stolen. They confront Charlie Hall in a jewelry store robbing it, and only belatedly realize he is not the owner. What follows is particularly amusing and surreal. The boys can't find the time to bring Hall in to the precinct for booking, and ask him to turn himself in the next day. The problem is that Hall (checking his schedule in a pocket record book) finds he can't do it, because he is planning a robbery on that date. They manage to find a date shortly afterward.They are sent to investigate an address where a person was seen by neighbors (it is nighttime, after all) who may be a burglar. In the course of checking this tip off, the boys manage to have a variety of mishaps reminiscent of their problems (a year before) in their Oscar winning short THE MUSIC BOX (particularly Ollie's mishaps with a bench and a fountain). They do get the mysterious person - who turns out to be less mysterious then they expected - and far more dangerous than anyone expected. I won't say anymore than that.Despite a type of downer conclusion, the film is quite a funny one, and among the best of their talkie shorts.

When I first started watching this short, I kept asking myself what type of police force is THAT stupid or short-sighted to give Laurel and Hardy jobs as cops?! Having the boys play policemen is a nice departure from the norm and it seems ironic that they played jailbirds in many more films! Regardless, the team behave much as you'd expect in this new role--they completely miss obvious crimes right in front of their faces but manage to apprehend the one person they meet who is actually minding his own business! Along the way, Stan and Ollie bumble and break stuff and act pretty much their usual selves. In a way, it's a real shame that aside from them being cops, this film is so very conventional and doesn't offer that many new ideas or gags. This isn't to say this is a bad film--just not anything extraordinarily different from the norm.